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Plans afoot to rename part of University St. after Robert Bourassa

Former Premier Robert Bourassa could get a street named after him after all, as work has progressed towards renaming University St. south of Rene-Levesque after the former premier.

Former Mayor Gerald Tremblay’s previous initiative to rename Park Ave. after the longtime Liberal premier met with fierce resistance but this attempt appears to be sparking less outrage.

Bourassa reigned in a particularly thorny time in Quebec history, battling the rise of nationalism under the Parti Quebecois and often finding many critics, which St. Laurent Borough Mayor Alan DeSousa acknowledged in an interview with CTV Montreal Tuesday.

“He was not always somebody who rallied a lot of enthusiasm and often opinions were divisive about his performance but in think in retrospect, when you look at the good he did, I think the time is right to find something that is appropriate.”

Several people interviewed by CTV Montreal downtown Tuesday frowned on the name-change idea.

“I don't see the point of it, to be honest. University is such a big street that everybody knows. Having a name change would screw with people's minds I think,” said one.

Another noted that people might get confused between Robert Bourassa St. and Henri Bourassa, another major local artery.

One official in from the provincial bureaucracy in charge of name change noted that the initiative forwarded by the Coderre administration seems to be advanced but an official request has not yet been filed.

“If people are against it, so we will also look at their opinions, so it's not changed like that. There’s a study and after that there's a decision,” said Jean-Pierre Leblanc of the Toponymy Commission.

The commission will discuss the issue at their next meeting in September.